Charles Clark & Ann Roser

Charles Clark, son of William and Catherine Clark nee McAlpin, was born at Bulga in 1846 and educated there and at the time of his marriage his address was Denman,near Muswellbrook.

Charles married Ann Roser, who was born at Patrick's Plains in 1850. Her parents had come from Sussex, England as assisted immigrants on the "Maitland" in 1838 and Ann was one of ten children born to John Roser from Lewes, and Mary Hannah nee Baker who
was born in Bodiam. More information on this family can be found on the ROSER PAGE.

Their issue:

Olive Clark [1873]

Ida May Clark [1879-1944]

Gertrude Clark [1885-1887]

Beatrice Vivian Clark [1882-1962]

Charles Arthur Clark [1877]

Leslie Kenneth Clark [1884-1978]

Charles and Ann had their first five children whilst living at Walgett but the last one, Leslie, was born at Bulga. Charles had been a drover, living at Denman at the time of his marriage, but later he went to Cryon, near Walgett, where he managed Cryon
station for the Capel family. Ann and Charles had Ida, Charles Arthur, Olive, Gertrude and Beatrice in Walgett, but when it was Leslie's turn to be born, Charles got a cottage at Bulga, intending for Ann to have some comforts.

Sadly, she died just a week after his birth, and as their good friend Jane Hayes at "Rock View", Bulga had just lost a baby daughter Bertha, she took young Les and raised him along with her own four children Millicent, Tommy, Howard and Mabel. They all
went to the little school at Bulga. Mabel later married McAlpin Roser, a relative to the Clark family through the McAlpins.

Les' foster parents, John and Jane Hayes, were English folk who had come out in 1855 at a time when orchardists were in great demand. The son of Mabel Hayes and Edward McAlpin Roser, Donald, married Muriel Frost and built a house on "Rock View" and his sister Nina married Henry Lyons of Collarenebri, a cousin to Les Clark, so we can see how the families of that time and area, very much intermingled by marriage and friendship.

In later years, the Clark and Capel families also inter-married: Ida Clark to George Capel of "Campo Santo"..his first wife was Emmaline, the daughter of Thomas Clark, brother to Charles. Emmaline and Ida had been great friends and so it was, that she married
George when Emmaline died.

There was yet another connection, when Ida's sister Beatrice Clark married Daniel George Capel, a cousin of George Capel of "Campo Santo".

"Rock View" was two miles up from The Inlet, which was a horseshoe shaped valley running off the Putty Road at Singleton. Right at the top was the Partridges' bigger place. Amos Hayes, son of John's brother William, lived further along, as did the Eathers,
and there was no other exit except by bridle track.

The soil was light and very fertile and grew beautiful melons and grapes. The youngsters walked two miles to school and home again and Elsa Clark, daughter of Les & Mabel, recalled staying in the old house which was built of timber and had a dirt floor
in the boys' room.

Charles was later on a property at Collarenebri called "Wirrabilla". It was not known if he owned or managed this property. It was eight or ten kilometres from town, a big old house with a nice garden and orchard. Les later went there to live when he wa
about 17 or 19. Les and his brother Charles Arthur often drove horses in from Queensland presumably to market: the stock route went down Howe's Valley to Putty and then to the sale yards at Windsor. At the time of Ann's death, the older Clark children had
gone to various homes...Ida to some friends or relatives at Muswellbrook: Beatrice went to Tommy Howell Clark at "Gamalally" Collarenebri but there was no mention of who looked after Olive and Charles Arthur.

Charles Clark, being a drover and with a growing family, would not have had very much money. He eventually acquired his own property on crown land out west, as Les did. As far as Elsa remembered, Les got the pick of the land, good grazing country with water
rights to about six kilometres of the Barwon River. This was the era when it was said that money grew on trees, so Charles may have done alright along the way, but he had nothing when he died; that is why his daughter Ida took him in at "Campo Santo,
Barraba, which her husband George owned. Charles was about to marry for the fourth time by then, but Ida soon put a stop to that!

After Ann Roser's death, Charles had married twice more....to two sisters, Margaret and Elizabeth Lauderdale. Their surnames are often mistakenly recorded in various family histories as Landale but they were very definitely Lauderdale. Perhaps their name
was abbreviated as Lau'dale in some document and the 'u' mistaken for an 'n' when transcribing.

Charles and Elizabeth....or Bertha, as she was known, were married in 1906 in Sydney. She died in 1920, her father being listed as Thomas and her mother as Agnes. On Margaret's death entry in 1927 her mother was surnamed McNeil. Margaret and Charles were
married in 1921 and the marriage was registered at Walgett.

Elsa Clark remembered Charles and Margaret..or Maggie..living in Epping in the 1920's, where she later died. Elsa said she was almost sure Elizabeth was buried at Collarenebri and could possibly have been buried in the Presbyterian cemetery. She knew for a fact that
Elizabeth died at "Euralah" as the lid of the coffin was propped up on the head of Elsa's bed and she was supposed to be asleep but was not. They had come to lunch and Elizabeth had died within half an hour of their arrival.

Elsa did not know where the Lauderdales came from; possibly the north west where Charles lived. As she recalled, Maggie lived with them and was called Miss Lauderdale, even after they were married. Elsa wrote "Grandfather Charlie married a Miss Lauderdale, a nice motherly person called Mater. She died and he later married her sister Maggie who had lived with them for some time."

Les Clark & Mabel Asher

Les Clark married Mabel Asher, daughter of Frank and Rebecca Asher nee Osborne, in 1911. Les and Mabel met at Collarenebri where Mabel had been sent for her first appointment as a school teacher. Charles had been asked by his daughter Ida to keep an eye
out for Mabel. Ida had been living with relatives or friends at Muswellbrook or Maitland and was a friend of Mabel's sister Violet Asher. Mabel was boarding at the school house at Collarenebri with the schoolmaster and his wife and family by the name of
McCauley. Mabel used to be invited to Charles Clark's "Wirrabilla" property for weekends and Les used to be sent by buggy, a distance of about four miles, to bring her out and take her back.

Violet Asher was also a teacher by profession. Her first teaching post was at Broken Hill. It was at the Turramurra, Sydney home of Violet and her husband Leslie Piggott that Norman Clark met his future wife Beth who lived next door to the Piggotts. Jack, Elsa
nd Norman spent a number of years living with the Piggotts, receiving an education in Sydney whilst their parents and Trixie lived at Collarenebri, and later, Merriwa.

Les Clark left Collarenebri about 1927, when he purchased a property 23 miles north of Merriwa, on the Liverpool Range. The property, "Inglewood", had been purchased from the Ladmore family and was originally part of Blaxland's grant. The property was about
3,500 acres, and a portion of it contained about half of Oxley's Peak, named after explorer John Oxley. This mountain was 4,500 feet above sea level. Vincent Potts owned the other half of the mountain, and he and Les were firm friends. Vincent's wife
Olive, nee Cameron, was a relative through the Roser family. Ann Roser's sister Harriette had a daughter Mary who married Lachlan Cameron and Olive was one of Mary's children. In later years, Elsa, John and Norman used to ride their horses over the mountainous terrain to "Chelsea", the Cameron property, to play tennis with their Cameron cousins, and it was nothing for them to make the five mile journey home in the dark.See ROSER History.

Les was at the property for about two years before he was joined by his wife and family. The property remained in his possession until 1972 when Les, his unmarried daughter Elsa, and his other son, Jack, moved to Sydney.

Jack made his home with daughter Juliette, who was working at that time in a nursing home at Terrey Hills, where they rented a house in Myoora Road. Jack had worked on the property for most of his life. He was a very versatile man and when there was not much
work on the property, he went shearing or fencing, or worked as a bush mechanic, on other properties, and was very much in demand.

Elsa never married, and had trained as a nurse in Sydney. She worked for many years as a highly regarded theatre sister at the Scottish hospital in Paddington, and when she returned to "Inglewood" in later years to care for her ailing mother, she subsequently
worked part-time at Merriwa district hospital in the theatre. Julie remembers when she had her tonsils removed at age seven, Elsa was the theatre sister at the Scottish, and at age twelve she had her appendix removed and Elsa was then the theatre sister
in Merriwa. It was a great comfort to have her there!

Elsa and Les went to live with the widowed Violet Piggott, sister-in-law to Les, and Les remained there until his death in 1978 at the Tudor Hall nursing home where he had briefly been in residence. Violet had by then died, and Elsa lived there alone until
she sold the house and moved to the Mowll Village at Castle Hill in 1982, where she lived until her death in October, 1999. Jack died in Plateau View nursing home in 1974, his wife Barbara nee Lawler, having by that time separated from him. Juliette was their only child. His brother Norman died in 1984, in Concord hospital.

Norman was involved in World War 2, going in as AC 1779 and right at the end of the war became a sergeant or the equivalent but never got his pay rise or his stripe. He was a riveter and in charge of his group. He was at Ultimo, Richmond and Wagga in NSW
and then in Ascot, Victoria and Birdum in the N.T. He joined up early in the war and started on Wirraway aircraft. He made wonderful brass models of these aircraft, which used to grace his parents' mantelpiece.

Trixie married Saxon Burnet.

Juliette Clark, daughter of Jack Clark, met Colin Hendry, a Parkes man, through their mutual interest in breeding pedigreed dairy goats. They met in 1976 and moved to Forbes and married in 1978. They have no children from the marriage but enjoy Colin's
children from his previous marriage- a daughter, Glenis, who is Julie's age, John, who is older than her, and a son Colin who is the baby of the family. Another son, Patrick, was killed in a motorcycle accident in the 1970's.

Colin was in World War 2; first in the army then based in England with the Air Force, where he flew 42 missions over Germany in Mosquito bombers. He was awarded the DFC. Julie later gave him a book on the Mosquito aircraft and when he saw the plane illustrated
on the front cover, he exclaimed "That is the plane we flew in!" recognising it from the registration letters which tallied with his flying records.